How to Survive a Puppy

       For those of you that know me, I am slightly obsessed with my puppy Remi. We have almost had him a year and it has been an interesting year to say the least. Right after me and Cole got married we started talking about getting a dog. Cole works night shifts and I wanted a dog to keep me company at night and during the day when Cole was sleeping. We don't have a very big yard and knew they dog would probably mostly be inside. We started looking on KSL for the perfect puppy. One day while at work Cole sent me a picture of Remi and I knew he had to be mine. 

I mean get real, he looks like something out of a puppy calendar. He's got button eyes for heaven sakes. We went the next day to go and get him. I imagined that we would have a magical ride home full of puppy kisses and cuddles. Once we got in the car Remi started barking and scratching me with his sharp puppy claws. He was panicking and I was doing the same. We picked him up in Bountiful and I made cole stop at the Petco in Layton because I couldn't handle it any more. 

Once we got home it got better. We got our fill of puppy kisses and cuddles, and then we had to go to work. We were both working a graveyard shift that night. Remi would only have to be home alone from 11pm to 5am that morning and I didn't think it would be a big deal because he should have been sleeping. When I got home at five that morning Remi wasn't in his kennel. I was freaking out, I finally found Remi hiding from me behind the couch crying. He didn't know who I was and was in this new scary home. He had escaped his kennel and pooped in four different areas of my house. I felt so bad because I am sure he was so scared. 

I feel so lucky to have a dog like Remi. He is indoors most of the time but does great. I remember when he was a puppy thinking, "how do people ever leave their dogs home alone?" Now Remi will stay home while i'm at school or while Cole and I go on a date. He never wakes us up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and he will sleep in until at least one or two in the afternoon if I work at night. We make sure to take him to do a lot of things so that he gets exercise being an indoor dog. We love him and I am so grateful to have such a fun and energetic dog. He definitely isn't perfect (those who have come to my house and gotten jumped on definitely know) but we are still working with him and he just gets better every day. 

Here are some tips to having an indoor dog and some livesavers if you plan on getting a dog anytime in the future. First, train them when they are little and stick to the training. If you don't want them to sleep with you in your bed every night, don't let them do it when they are little. That goes for any training. When puppies are little its cute when they jump on you, but when they are big its horrible. That is something we are still working on with Remi because we didn't do it with him when he was little. Taking them on walks when they are little helps a TON! I started walking and running and even riding my bike with Remi when he was really little! It has helped a lot so that he doesn't pull on his leash now.  Since Remi is indoors I have had to find things that work for him when we leave. I found that if me and Cole were gone too long he would get bored and start tearing things apart, specifically pillows. I bought a little crate at walmart and filled it up with toys. We get it out for him when we leave the house. I sometimes will put different toys in different areas of the house. Since we started doing that Remi hasn't ruined anything in a long time. When Remi was little a huge life saver was baby gates. If I was doing dishes I would baby gate him inside the kitchen with me. I found that if he was near me I could potty train him easier and he would get himself in less trouble. I always kept him gated where ever I was until  he was fully potty trained. Along with training him we loved bite size treats. I would buy tiny treats so that I could give him them while I was training him. Here are some of our favorite dog toys! 

Remi is a power chewer. There are not very many toys that he can't destroy after having them only a couple of minutes. These are all toys that are great to keep any dog busy, but especially dogs that like to chew. The first picture is a Kong toy. You can put treats or peanut butter or they even have a type of cheese whiz for dogs. We love this for Rem because it takes him  a while to get the treat out of it so he will work on it for awhile to get it. The second one is a Nylabone. They come in different ranges of softness. The one Remi has right now he can't chew through so we love it. The third picture is just your average soft stuffed dog toy. You can get these ones for about a dollar at Walmart. When we first got Remi we were getting him more expensive stuffed toys but we quickly gave up because Remi would destroy them so quickly. Now I just buy him stuffed animals from the dollar store or cheap dog toys at Walmart so that I don't care when he ruins them. Our last and most favorite toy is the Chuck-It ball. We have had this ball since Remi was a puppy and it is still holding up great. It floats in the water, which is awesome, and its really durable so Remi can chew and chew on it and it  never gets ruined. With regular tennis balls Remi would  chew the fuzz off of them so with these he can play with them all day and I don't have to worry about it. 

My most favorite place to take Remi is the dog park on 24th street. For any of you that have dogs this is such an awesome place. It is all gated in and there are usually other dogs there for Remi to play with. We took him when he was really little to socialize him with dogs so that he would get along with them. Now that he is bigger the Ogden River runs right near it and we go and throw the ball into the river and he swims around. There are tons of dog lovers down there and it is so nice to take Remi some where and let him be off the leash and not have to worry about it. 

Needless to say we love our Remi dog! 

   Lots of time and training Remi fits into our family so perfectly. We love having him around. Having a dog is so fun. I wanted to share this post because recently I have been going to the animal shelter and volunteering a little bit. I see so many dogs there that have been left behind. If any of you are considering getting a dog PLEASE make sure you are ready for it. Remi took and still takes a lot of time. We make sure to take him to the park and take him on walks. Going on trips isn't the same anymore because we either have to take him or have someone babysit him for us. Luckily we have awesome family that will do it for us. Remi has destroyed many a pillow,  shoe, and our yard on occasion. Once he even ruined a Jazz hat that Cole had signed by Trey Burke #nightmare. We LOVE him and can't imagine not having him, but if you are considering getting a puppy please make sure you are ready for it. No dog deserves to be taken from their families and given to an animal shelter. If you are wanting to take in a puppy or a dog, please consider adopting from a shelter. There are so many awesome dogs there that need homes. If you can't get a dog, but you really love them. The animal shelter is always looking for volunteers. You can go and walk the dogs and play with them and give them lots of love. If you are feeling down in the dumps dogs are the best way to boost your mood. 

Kitchen Update

Hi guys! I have more pictures from this little farm house. It has been slow and steady work but the more we do to it the more I cant imagine leaving here! Although it would be nice to own my own home (and not live on Washington blvd.) I have truly enjoyed living here so far. My next project is our bedroom that I have been avoiding for a year now haha.

So without further ado! Farmhouse Kitchen (on a budget!)

When Cole and I moved into this house the backsplash was just squares of cork board glued to the wall. They soaked up all the water stunk so bad like mold. I ripped them off basically the day I moved in. Me and Katie Workman spent a whole day last summer getting the kitchen cleaned. We had to peel the sunflower wallpaper off, clean the stove and fridge, which is rather disgusting when the sticky gross stuff thats on everything isn't from you. I then replaced all the hardware on the cabinets and painted the walls light gray.  Cole painted the door that led outside bright yellow. I loved it

I convinced Cole that we needed to tile the backsplash. We went to Home Depot and bought sheets of tile. Neither of us had ever done tile before but I had watched a few youTube videos on the subject so I considered myself an expert. The first sheet that I placed on the wall was completely crooked in comparison to Coles perfectly straight ones. I have been staring at our unfinished crooked backsplash for a year because the grout was too thick to get the tile off. 

I got that cute rug at target 

I was browsing pintrest when I saw that someone had used peel and stick vinyl wood flooring to use as a backsplash. I thought this would be perfect for our backsplash. It wasn't very much work and it only cost me ten dollars. Click here here for the tutorial I saw on pintrest.  I LOVE the way it looks, it makes my kitchen look so much cleaner having a finished backsplash. I also had the hardest time doing my dishes because my sink is in the corner and my fridge blocked so much of the light. So I decided to get a little crafty. I just Velcroed a lamp to my ceiling and stapled the cord out of the way. Ghetto, maybe, but I really like the way it looks and it was much easier than trying to wire a new light there. 

I found this awesome print at society6.com. They have all sorts of awesome prints, cellphone cases and you name it. I really love to look at that site. It inspires me when I'm in an artistic rut. Also behind that picture is a hideous hole in the wall with a towel stuffed in it. I believe it used to be a chimney from the stove? These are the kind of interesting things I deal with in a house built in 1861. 

I made that chalkboard art last week. I had an old canvas upstairs that I wasn't using. I just spray painted it with chalkboard paint, found some cute chalkboard art on pintrest I liked, and copied it. #plagiarism Also isn't that calendar great? There is a book at target called "Everything is Going to be Okay" that I have purchased for a couple friends. I decided to see if they had a calendar version of it on amazon and they did! I was so excited and I will definitely be ordering a new one next year. 

This is my cute kitchen table. I looked for a drop leaf table on KSL and the DI for a few months before finding this gem for five dollars. I painted the legs silver and the base light blue and I love it. The chairs I also found with the DI. The Imagine Dragons poster was a gift from Cole when we were dating. Its from the Beehive Art Gallery and they only made 10 of them. I love that it is super unique.

Here is my Remi boy and of course my striped fridge. Lots of people have asked me if I painted it and the answer is no! Home Depot actually sells contact paper  that  comes in huge rolls. I was able to do my whole fridge with one roll and seven dollars. They have all sorts of different colors and patterns at Home Depot and even more on Amazon. Cole bought Remi's dog bowls at Dollar Tree believe it or not. We think they are so cute. I also put them on a place mat because this dog splashes water all over the place. 

So here it is! I really like the way my little kitchen turned out. 

Baltimore

Relient K and Half Birthdays.

Last week I was driving in the car with Coleman and Jenn and we were listening to Relient K in the car. It was then that Coleman told me that we would be going to see them the next week. Listen, I totally freaked out, started crying, the whole picture. If you're wondering what it looked like just search "Parents surprise their kids with DisneyLand" into YouTube and you might get the general idea of what my face was like. My love for Relient K started when I was probably in 7th grade. My friends liked them, so I liked them in return. I didn't own many CD's growing up and they were one of the only bands who's music I owned. They were my first concert as well. I think the love I have for them now is just because they bring so many good memories of growing up. They were the soundtrack to my junior high and high school years. So when Cole surprised me with these tickets I was thrilled. Firstly because   it was Relient K. Secondly because he's celebrating my half birthday which is basically the number one best trait a husband can have. 

This is a picture of me and Kim when I saw them for the first time. 

Me and Cole got there pretty early and were able to get right in the front row. Cole even caught Relient K's drum stick for me, what a dreamboat. This is one of the perks of having a tall husband. They came with Driver friendly who are pretty new but I enjoyed them and we were able to meet them after the concert and they were all really cool. They also came with Motion City Soundtrack which was also great. I don't know very many of their songs but I definitely want to. 

I was so glad to run into Kim and Tucker at the concert. It was like the good ol' days. I caught myself thinking during the concert about how lucky I am that even though so much has changed in our lives we have kept the same friendship and I'm so grateful for that. Yay for good friends. 

Speaking of gratitude we are headed to Parma Idaho this week for Thanksgiving. It will be my first Thanksgiving spent not with my family but I am excited to spend it with the Hansens this year. This Thanksgiving is also Extra special because its Coleman's twenty fourth birthday!! And then Jenn's is the next day! (and then my Half birthday, just saying)  So heres to a week filled with lots of food, laughter and biiiirrrthdaysss, which are my favorite thing. YAY

This is Halloween.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Coleman, Jenn and I decided to throw a little get together at our house the day after Halloween. On Halloween night we were able to go to a little haunted house in a neighborhood because Parker was working in it. It was actually really fun. There were all little kids working in it so that almost made it a little creeper. I was especially glad because I would have been really sad if I didn't do ANYTHING on Halloween. Plus our house was kind of lame. We didn't get a single trick-or-treater. I mean hello kids! I have candy! and lots of it. That might sound a little creepy but for real. The light was on! I get that most people don't trick-or-treat on the busiest road in North Ogden, but I may or may not have had my hopes up just a little bit. I would have even appreciated a "too old teenager" at my door. 

Jenn was able to spend the night at our house halloween night and we went and got all of our decorations 1/2 off. Smartest move ever if you ask me! We got a fog machine for fifteen dollars and napkins and plates for fifty cents! We spent all day buying decorations and food for the party. Lucky for us we had a ton of decorations already. When Linda Mom came down last weekend she brought us a ton of lights and cute decorations. When we were shopping with her we found this super awesome Willy beard from Duck Dynasty, so Cole decided to be that this year. Our only struggle was finding him a wig. We finally found the perfect one the day of our party for only five dollars. We even stuffed a pillow in his shirt that looks pretty realistic.  I decided to go as the deer that Cole hit with his car last August. It was really fun to go as something gross this year. 

We covered up our washer and dryer and used those as a table for drinks. We made homemade rootbeer in a witches cauldron and it was soo good. It reminded me of Halloween when I was a kid. We were lucky because I swear that we found the last rootbeer extract in Ogden. Shout out to Smiths for not letting us down. 

We had the whole back room covered in spiderwebs and all of upstairs with orange and purple lights. I didn't get a picture of the upstairs at all. Partly because I didn't take a single picture the whole night. I totally stole these pictures from Jenn's facebook and I feel guilty about it but what are you going to do I guess.. Shout out to Jenn for being way better at taking pictures at parties. 

Turns out throwing parties at your own house is pretty exhausting. I have a newfound respect for all the people who have thrown parties that I've attended. I mean Jenn has people at her house basically every weekend. She's a rockstar and a half. Overall it was a really great night and I'm looking forward to more fun in this little old house that I've become rather fond of.

Sisters Do as Sisters Should

This weekend I was lucky enough to have my little sister spend the weekend with me and Cole. My Parents were in Cape Cod attending a wedding and Karlee was able to pick where she wanted to stay. Normally she would stay with one of her fun friends. This time, however, when my mom asked her where she wanted to stay she said ME! This was more than exciting for me because I've always said my siblings were much cooler than me. In fact, just last year I was at my parents house hanging out and I was singing and dancing in the bathroom with Karlee and she said, and I quote, "Ugggchhh Kier! you are SO annoying." Ok hi, she was twelve, and I was the annoying one? Me and Karlee have always gotten along really well but in this past year or so I have enjoyed her company more and more. She is so fun to be around and really easy going. I have always looked up to her because she is so athletic and kind and always has lots of fun. So I was glad she was able to stay with me.

The first night she was here her and I went and ran errands. We had to go to Costco to pick up some pictures. While we were digging around the bin hoping to spy my pictures someone stopped and said, "Hey we are looking for our photobook that we printed, we were just wondering if it was done yet or if you could go and look for it." These people clearly thought I worked there. I was straight up wearing a tribal print skirt and a hoodie. It could not have been more apparent that I didn't work there. I don't know what it is about me but I get asked if I work places all the time. I could be at target wearing lime green and jeans and someone will ask me, "Do you know if you have this size in the back?" I've even been asked if I worked at the DI before, sans red apron. Now thats a blow to the self esteem. But for real, I get asked a lot, so me and Karlee got a good laugh out of that. Then like they say, When in Rome. Well when in Costco, you sample stuff, thats a fact. At one point of our trip I conned Karlee into getting a second sample and the guy yelled "HEY!" she totally got busted. The best part about it is that when you are fourteen everything is about one hundred times more awkward than it is for a normal person. So she walked around the store bright red and awkwardly giggling for the next half hour.

On Saturday she was such a trooper she came out to help us get Jenn moved. She was really tough and helped a ton and didn't ever whine. Then that night her best friend Madi came over to hang out with us. Madi has always been like family. She was even one of my bridesmaids. When you get those two together there is no chance of not laughing. We decided to carve pumpkins together. I was lame and just carved an "H" with polka dots, Karlee did a "K" with the superman symbol around it and some stars. Good ol' madi took about ten minutes to decide what she was going to do and finally decided on Mike from Monsters Inc. It started out really great until she slipped and Mikes whole face fell off. We spent a good half hour trying to nail all the pieces back on and it at least worked for a couple minutes only to fail again. I would have to say her pumpkin is my favorite though. Every time I look at it on my porch I get a good laugh.

                                        

Next me and the girls did face masks because thats just what you do when you have a girls night. I had bought me and Karlees a few days before and then went back to the store that night to get madi's. They didn't have the same one as the ones I already had so I got a different kind. When we opened the package it was a literal mask, not a cream. It looked so creepy because it was skin colored and had holes for the eyes and mouth and nose. Madi made the best of it of course. Later we just squeezed some extra out of our pouches so Madi didn't have to wear the creepy one.

Today we just relaxed, we watched an old Mary Kate and Ashley movie with all three of us in our small bed. Cole is such a good sport. Me and Coleman woke up early to make a yummy waffle breakfast of which I thought it said to make the full box to make 8-10 waffles when it really said 8-10 people. So if anyone wants some waffles..... we have a few. It was such a good weekend. Karlee woke up this morning and changed, into my clothes. She came out of our bedroom this morning wearing a pair of my pants that were much to big for her and one of my hoodies. I used to hate the fact that whenever I got a new pair of shoes they were followed by her getting the same pair. Or every time I liked a new band it was her favorite as well. Now that I'm a little older its my favorite thing, and little does she know that I want to be HER when I grow up. I guess imitation is the best form of flattery. I love being a big sister to that girl. 

Living Room Tour

Last May when me and Cole got engaged we were on the market for somewhere to live. Neither of us had put much thought into it. But one Sunday my aunt Kari mentioned that the little farm house she had lived in five years prior was opening up. Then her eyes widened and she said, "KIER! you need to call the Hill's right now and rent from them." I called them that day and set up a time for when I could go look at the house. When we got there, our jaws dropped, not because of the beauty, but quite the opposite. 

Ok, looking back at this picture it doesn't look half as bad as it was. Let me explain, on the far right of the picture by the vent you can see a square that is lighter than the rest of the carpet. This is because the carpet was SO dirty that where ever there was a piece of furniture it was like, four shades lighter then the rest of the dirty carpet. We did a really terrible job of taking before pictures but trust me, this doesn't even begin to show how bad it was. Yellow walls, dirty carpet with wax and spray paint and gum, yes, gum stuck in it. See that brick wall, the renters before us tore up the brick flooring and hand painted every brick bright red instead of leaving it the beautiful natural brick it was before. The rug on the ground was stapled to the ground with only particle board beneath it. Like, I cant. Anyways, it was a lot of work. We replaced the carpet and linoleum and painted for what seemed like a month straight. Now, this little farm house is my favorite place and I couldn't imagine us anywhere else. 

We were so lucky! Most of the furniture we have has been thrifted and repainted. It has been my favorite thing to do in my spare time. I just did the herringbone coffee table this week and I'm seriously in love. Also that cool green lamp I found for 3 dollars! For realz! 3 dollars, nothing makes me happier than redoing something and making it beautiful, especially for cheap! 

Sorry for the blurry pictures. My mom was the lucky winner for that sweet t.v. stand. She found it for me at the DI and we repainted it navy blue and I love it! Don't mind the fact that I have a bunch of empty frames all over the place. I  was waiting to get my wedding pictures back and now... I've just been lazy. Don't judge me. But I really love my picture wall. We have a picture of each of our families up there and some fun other pictures. Also a number seven, my lucky number.  My other favorite thing in this picture is our awesome globe on a stand. Cole got it from his grandpa before he left for our mission and I think its one of my favorite things in our living room.

One of the first pieces of furniture I repainted was that coral end table by the couch. On the end table is a record player that I gave Cole for our first valentines day and its one of our favorite things. We were even able to use it at our wedding.  I love having a little mantle to decorate for holidays. Even if it is only two inches wide ha! Plus don't you love my burlap banner. My talented aunt Kari makes them and I think it adds a lot to my repainted brick wall. Also, take note of my christmas lights on the edge of the couch. I love coming home at night to some twinkly lights. I already know where I'm going to put my christmas tree! I plan on giving more house tours once I have finished some more projects up my sleeve. We love our little house.